Ugh...What Do I Write About?

This week I’ve talked with a few friends who have taken the 28 Day Challenge and a few are having trouble coming up with ideas for blog posts.  If you update your blog with any consistency, topics for posts will inevitably cause you trouble from time to time.  So you can imagine the challenge with 28 topics in 28 days.

Regardless if your blog is laser focused on a particular niche, or if you cast a wider net about life or random thoughts…it’s still tough to try and create new topics that haven’t been blogged about to death.

I don’t advise only writing for Keywords that you think will get you Google search results. I’m a believer in writing for content and not SEO.

Give Your Readers What They Want

What information have your readers really liked?  Have there been particular topics that received a wave of comments or Retweets or backlinks?  Find what information created a greater amount of engagement than others.  If a set of information has become popular among your audience, why would you deny them more content they crave?  Don’t make it harder than it has to be, write what your readers want to read.

Ask

If you’ve ever found yourself completely frozen with what to write about, take advantage of all of the real-time web tools.  Ask your followers on Twitter, posts a few questions on Facebook and see if any great ideas come from that.  The tools to receive instant feedback are plentiful, take advantage of them.

Add New Insights To Industry News

If you’ve been writing for a while, a good chunk of your readers look at you as a knowledge source for your niche.  Provide information and opinions with news about your particular niche.  Are there new products or tools that just came out?  Is there a new study you can comment on?    Just make sure you actually add either a new prospective or new ideas to the topic.

I recently wrote about Ford’s new “tweeting car”.  Rather than just simply comment if i liked the idea or not, I added new insights and ideas I thought were worthwhile.  Become opinionated and write your thoughts out loud.  If you’re lucky, your readers will provide additional insight and in some cases make you reconsider or even change your mind on a particular topic.

What Are You Working On?

What better place to let folks know about projects you’re working on than your readers.  If you’ve had a new opportunity, or exciting new client, or really excited about what you have going on…why not write about it.  Don’t use it as a direct sale pitch, focus on challenges and insights.  If you have people following your blog, they’re going to want to know about the person behind the writing too.  Everyone can relate to struggles and success.  Why not share a little about your own journey.

Write About How Hard Writing About Blog Posts Is

What better way to use a post than to write about posts.  I’m using this extremely amazing tactic right now as I type.

Don’t over complicate writing a blog.  It’s actually supposed to be fun and provide some enjoyment for you.  Every post isn’t going to be a grand slam, although you should try and add new value with each post.  If you ever find your brain frozen with topic ideas, or if you need to write 28 posts in 28 days…try a few of these ideas.  I hope they help.

This is DAY 13 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

Related posts:

1. The #1 Factor For A Successful Blog: Consistent Frequency of Posts There are many factors that will help create a successful...
2. Are You Writing For Your Readers Or Google? Read anything about blogging advice and SEO is bound to...
3. StumbleUpon Hashtag Increases Blog Traffic We all want to boost and increase our blog traffic,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Follow the 28 Day Challenge @ #28DayChallenge on Twitter

Yesterday, I posted 28 Days of Blogging.  Basically it was a simple and short post about how I plan on blogging everyday for the month of February.  It was a pure test and challenge to myself to keep the Real Time Marketer blog up and active every single day for the month.  I wasn’t expecting much from this simple post, certainly not in the form of ReTweets, blog comments, or reactions.

I was wrong.

Although the post was a personal test to myself, others have jumped onto the idea and dove in head first to ignite their own blogs.  After a few minutes from publishing the post, my friend and social media shaker, Tyler Hurst set a friendly challenge.

So, after several other enthusiastic bloggers have jumped on and agreed to also post each day for 28 days…it’s time to ignite some inspirational fire.

The 28 Day Blogging Challenge

-

What: Very simple, blog for 28 days in a row.

When: For 28 Days in a row (I’m blogging the month of February but as long as its 28 days, it doesn’t matter when you start)

Report Your Results: This is key.  You need to know your base, so you can evaluate how you’re doing.  After your 28 days we want to know how much you increased traffic, subscribers, or whatever else your goals were.

Why 28 Days? The 28 days is important.  We’re not trying to form a habit, who wants to blog every day?  Not me.  Besides, according to Clinical Psychologist, Peter Brown, it takes about 66 days to form a habit (on average).  But there are specific goals I want to achieve.

• I want to increase traffic to this blog
• I want to increase RSS Subscribers
• I want to create some momentum for this blog
• I want to reach a new audience that is unfamiliar with this blog
• I want to be a better writer

The 28 days is important because it’s simple.  Exactly 4 full weeks.  It’s not a month or 30 days that can start and end on random days.  It’s 4 full weeks.  I started on a Monday, I’ll end in 4 weeks on a Sunday.  Pretty simple to grasp.  It’s also long enough to produce real results.  28 days in a row is room to write a considerable amount of new content.  Even if you average 2 posts per week, it would take 14 weeks to produce what you now will in 4.

We Learn From Each Other

The best thing about involving others is that you can push each other when you’re not feeling productive or inspired.  Blogging can be a pretty lonely task.  The thoughts of “Is anyone really reading this” certainly creep in from time to time.  It’s also nice to see real results from regular people.  Not that I don’t enjoy following the careers and thoughts of the “gurus” like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse , but…it’s hard to relate.  The nice thing about this is that I am you.  Just a regular guy with a handful or readers and interest trying to share some ideas with others.

Throughout this process you need to identify 3-5 ways you’re going to increase traffic, subscribers, post comments, and whatever else your goals happen to be.  Over time, just report how it’s working.  We all learn from this process.

Here’s the 5 I will start with (I may adjust over the process)

1. Earlier Publishing Time: I am a night owl by nature and usually save time for writing at night.  This poses a problem because blog posts are often immediate.  If you publish at 10pm, most RSS subscribers won’t look at the previous night.  They look for what publishes that day and will completely miss most of what you publish.  I will publish earlier to open exposure to a larger demographic.
2. Change My URL Shortener: Because I focus on content and not at all on SEO, the large majority of my traffic comes from social networks and not Google.  The problem with this is that most URL Shorteners like bit.ly and SU.pr rarely show as traffic on Google Analytics.  I have had several posts reach more hits by themselves than Google Analytics gives me credit for the entire month.  So I will change what I use to try and get more accurate results.
3. Post To More LinkedIn Groups: In addition to the Group I manage on LinkedIn, I am a member of a lot more.  Yet rarely to I market my content to these groups.  I will change that.
4. Sheer amount of new posts: Kinda a cop out I know, being that the challenge auto creates more posts.  But this def will bring more traffic.
5. New Content Format: Up till now, I have only provided written content.  I will incorporate videos here and there to offer a different content angle as well as to add some personality into my posts.

28 Days of Blogging List: (join the 37 blogs)

(Want to be on the list?  Add a comment with your Blog and you’re in)

• Real Time Marketer – Scott Bishop

• Tyler Says… - Tyler Hurst

• Little Tech Girl – Kris Cain

• College Caffeinated – Colby Gergen

• The Cool Perspective - Ross Simmonds

• That Girl Nena – Nena Cabasan

• Good Old Rock – Matt Stratton

• Rock Band Aide – Tommy Wall

• Living Life – Jenn

• Rockhopper – Benjamin Zalasky

• Champagne Mom

• Mitchell Hislop – Mitchell Hislop

• SMC Pros

• TC Gadget Geeks

• The 20% Challenge

• From The Trenches – John LeMay

• Sydney Unfiltered – Sydney Owen

• Ellle La Mode – Ellen Nordahl

• A Work in Progress – Leia Ferrari

• Extraordinary Mommy – Danielle Smith

• The Adventures of Reddsmitty – Kim Redd

• Country Mouse in the City – Claire

• Ray’s Wealth Wisdon – Ray Buckner

• Wes Novack – Wes Novack

• Musings of a Punk Rock Father – Andrew

• Going Green Science – Steve Johnson

• Climb The SEO Mountain – Clark Schultz

• Defying Gravity – Jackie Dreyer

• Sunday Morning Soliloquy – Leyla Arsan

• Blonde by Design – Sprite

• Yuri Artibise – Yuri Artibise

• Nouveau Geek – Pia Simeoni

• Fred Cadena – Fred Cadena

• The Universe Is Between Your Ears – Joe Winnet

• A Long Way From The Judith Basin – W. Kelly Oja

• Random Thoughts By Rebecca – Rebecca Hession

• A Blah Blah Blawg – Desiree Koh

• Shopping Cart Strategies – Dave Beck

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

Related posts:

1. 28 Days of Blogging February is here and time to start a torrid pace...
2. Are You Building a Blogging Community? Your blog posts are great, but are you building a...
3. StumbleUpon Hashtag Increases Blog Traffic We all want to boost and increase our blog traffic,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

2010 will be an exciting and energetic year of action for me.  I hope it is for you as well.  The first new project I’m endevouring on is exciting for me…because it is very different than my past projects.  Kinda.

I’m pumped to report that I’m writing for a new blog called Untemplater.   The theme of the blog is “Work where you want, Live how you want, and be what you want to be in 2010.” How cool is that!

Yes of course I’ll still be rocking the Real Time Marketer, but I like to wear many hats and this is a good one.

What’s great about my roll for Untemplater is that I’m stepping outside of the traditional business marketing posts and focusing on a personal topic…dating.  Yes, I said dating.  But Scott, what could you possibly know about dating?

Quite a lot actually.  Think about it…is dating really anything more than the marketing of oneself to another?  That’s a direct way to approach the subject but I like to put my spin on traditional topics.  So in addition to business marketing advice and tips, join me for a walk down the personal marketing road.  I’ll be a little more lose  and “off the cuff” in my Untempler posts but they’ll all be fun and I promise for an entertaining read.

Even if you’re happily married or never ever want to date again…I recommend you check out the blog.  There is an allstar lineup of authors blogging about several topics such as Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance, Self Improvement, etc.

Also, make sure you check out the blogs Manifesto.  It’s a quick read with some great tips from folks who have walked the walk, not just strategy.  This is truly the way a blog should be launched.  If for no other reason, download the manifesto for and idea of how to master the art of the blog launch.  It’s visually stunning for an ebook and filled with excellent advice and information.  Download the Manifesto HERE.

I hope you will join me and help spread the word of this new adventure.  Cheers to all of our success in 2010.

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You should subscribe to the feed HERE

Much of today’s work can be done from the comfort of our own homes.  Telecommuting is becoming a much more popular trend and an easy way for organizations to save money on expensive office space, it’s also a great way to be able to accumulate better workers from a wider more talent pool.

But even in today’s mobile work environment, we must get in our cars and drive sometime.  And with the holiday season quickly approaching…road trips to visit family and increased car time are around the corner.   There are few things less productive than a road trip.  Just you, the open road, and your thoughts to keep you company.

I worked as an outside sales person for several years in large territories where it was common to drive several hours between customers and appointments.  So what can you do to stay productive while in the car or on a road trip?  Here are some tools that might help.

5 Tools for Staying Productive On The Road

- Podcasts: Rather than listen to the Black Eyed Peas on the radio, again…why not listen to something that will stimulate your business brain.  Podcasts are the perfect solution.

I’m not an audio book person.  I know many people love the format, but for me…it’s too hard to pay attention to someone talk for 8 hours and get through 350 pages of text.

Podcasts are a fantastic way to ABL (Always Be Learning) and the amount and quality out there is stunning.  Best of all…they’re almost always free.

Available on iTunes, there are thousands of podcasts waiting to be listened to.  And the great thing about them…is that they are hyper-niched.  Just type in an area of content you want to learn about and most likely several options will come up.  Unlike an audio book (which cost money) they are usually under an hour and easy to listen to.

- Jott (Or any Voice To Text Software): Ever been driving and an awesome idea for a blog post (like this one) pops into your head?  Well maybe it’s just me…but audio transcription software is a fantastic way to get things done in the car.

Jott is the perfect solution.  You can update, twitter, Facebook, Outlook, Google apps, and Blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger.

So rather than crash your car sending text messages while driving, you can record some thoughts, and even post or publish them…all in the comfort of your car.  Subscriptions run about $10 per month. (this tool was also suggested by @tdhurst )

- Bluetooth Headset: With more and more states outlawing talking on the cell phone while driving…a Bluetooth headset is a basic necessity.  @thetristan recommended the Voyager 520 to me for this post.  Jott has an iphone and Blackberry app, as well

- YouMail: Not everyone or every client has your cell number, so many will still be calling your office number to get a hold of you.  YouMail is a free service that works with most mobile phones and carriers.

The handy service converts all of your voice mails to audio files, then sends them to you via e-mail.  Now you can stay on top of all of those fires that are brewing at your office.

- Internet Access (Starbucks Card): Sometimes you just need Internet access, and being on the road can make that difficult.  The Sprint MiFi solves this problem, but it does cost money.

A Starbucks Card solves this issue.  Unless you’re on the moon…chances are, there’s a Starbucks nearby.  If you buy a stored-value Starbucks Card, register it online, and use it at least once every 30 days, you can get the wifi in any Starbucks for free.  Besides, I’m guessing you could probably use the caffeine break anyway.

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How Are You Making Your Blog Succeed?

There are many factors that will help create a successful blog:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Quality of Content
• Intriguing Headlines
• Number of Comments
• Blog Design
• And many others…

But I believe that the #1 factor for blog success, is the frequency of your posts.  Mashable and TechCrunch, are respectably the #1 and #2 most popular social media blogs.  They average over 20 posts per day.  I understand they both have teams of paid writers to continuously spit out post after post…but I am constantly checking out their sites because I know they have good quality, and I know that information will be new and constant.

It is not realistic and probably not appropriate for you to be writing 20 articles per day, but you do need to consistently be writing new content.  Social Media, more than ever, is truly an out of sight out of mind medium.  If you aren’t continuously contributing content, or posts, or tweets…you do not exist.

If you write the absolute most interesting blog posts ever, but only write one once a month…it won’t matter.  You can not gain new readers without continuously writing new content.  This blog is a perfect example.  Up until now, I have gained a respectable amount of readers per post average.  But I am not gaining new readers.  Most of my traffic up till this point has been from posting to Twitter.  That strategy does work, but it is inconsistent.  Without a constant publishing schedule, your blog will plateau.  It’s hard to say just how soon that may happen, but it will happen.

Your viewers will drop of like a rock and it is very, very hard to get them back.  There are currently more than 70 Million blogs…so if you are not taking yours seriously, and continuously and consistnetly adding content, there are literally millions to take your place.

What Do I Write?
Honestly, to some degree…it doesn’t matter.  As long as you are on topic with the theme of your blog, you can really write about anything.  Not every post needs to be a home run.  Not every post needs to be groundbreaking.  Not every post needs to receive tons of comments.  But in order to build an audience and fan base, you need posts… Period.

I am much more likely to subscribe to a blog’s RSS if they are consistently posting.  Very few people will agree to subscribe to your email list or RSSif they think the blog is inactive.  Eventually you will have enough articles where you can begin to market some of your previous posts.   Seth Godin, whom I would consider a Social Media Expert, explains this in more detail HERE.

How Often do I Post?
There is no statistic determining how many posts you need in a given time frame to be successful, but I say…the more the merrier.  People often disagree with this number but  I personally think the sweet-spot is around one per week, published the same day each week.

The one post per week at the same time each week will get people used to your posting schedule and they will eventually begin to look for them.  Tim Jahn’s video blog Beyond The Pedway does this brilliantly.  Each Friday, I know to look for a new video post, and each and every Friday I do.

I do think there is room to post more than once per week if you have time.  Darren Rowse of ProBlogger does offer a good warning of “Reader Fatigue” but for most bloggers just starting out, you do not have enough readers to cause fatigue.  Maybe someday I can get to that point, but I am definitely not there yet.

My New Publishing Commitment:
As someone who feels you can only gain credibility by practicing what you preach, I’ve committed to a new posting schedule.  Real Time Marketer will soon be publishing about 3 posts per week.  My posts will consist of different themes so readers can get used to a consistent schedule and theme.  I will have a Tuesday Tool (offering a new social media tool and review each Tuesday), a regular post, and a Follow Friday post.  Although posting 3 times per week may seem excessive, the Tuesday Tool and Follow Friday posts have there own theme and vibe to break apart reader fatigue.

So, I have laid my case for Consistent Frequency of Posts as the #1 factor to a successful blog.  Agree?  Disagree?  Please leave your comments, I am very interested in your opinion.

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

Related posts:

1. StumbleUpon Hashtag Increases Blog Traffic We all want to boost and increase our blog traffic,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We all want to boost and increase our blog traffic, no matter what we’re currently tracking.  Real Time Marketer is a very new blog and so far I am happy with the results.  After about a week, I have 100 people subscribing via Feedburner and for only a few posts, that’s not bad.  However, you can always do more.  I have no intention of making money from this blog so pure traffic, although tracked, is not an immediate goal.

I am much more concerned with reaching and influencing more people outside of my current circle and networks.  A creative way to do that, is to rank higher on the social networks Digg and StumbleUpon.  Although Digg is a wonderful and worthwhile network, StumbleUpon is what I will focus on right now.

So I’m creating a twitter hashtag experiment called #StumbleMe . Here’s how I envision it to work:
When you write a new post from your blog and tweet the link, attach #stumbleme to the end of your tweet.  When I and others see the #stumbleme hashtag on Twitter, we’ll use the StumbleUpon tool bar to rate your post.  That’s it.  I’ll stumble your posts, you stumble mine, we all stumble each other.

How #StumbleMe Will Help Your Blog:

• Your website / blog will be listed on StumbleUpon.com

• Once your website gets stumbled, they’ll often receive visitors from all over the world.  The more people who are participating in #StumbleMe rating your posts, the more people who will potentially see it on StumbleUpon, thus increasing your audience and influence.

• Establish a new reader base for your blog very quickly.

• Gain backlinks from StumbleUpon visitors with websites.

Challenges:

1. You’ll Need a StumbleUpon Account: Sign Up for an account at StumbleUpon here (this should take about 90 sec).  Use the Internet Explorer or Firefox addon located in the upper right hand corner of the homepage (this is the easiest way and how I will use the experiment)
2. You’ll Need To See The Hashtag #StumbleMe: You can either keep a look out for it during the day while you’re on Twitter.  Search the hashtag using Twitter Search . Search the hashtag on Hashtag.org
3. People need to know the hashtag exists: This can only be done by spreading the word.  So either RT this post, or tell others about it, and let folks know you’re participating.
4. People need to act:  Changing other peoples behavior is often the most difficult task to do, just ask any dietitian.  But I’m hoping this experiment is easy and helps others enough where they will participate.  I will do a daily search for the Hashtag and stumble on any post that uses the hashtag, I am hoping others will as well.  When the community participates, we all win.

Will this hashtag experiment prove to be a success?  Only time will tell, but its certainly worth a shot and I think it will be fun to track.

Do you have any ideas to make this experiment better?  Thoughts?  Leave a comment below.

Happy Stumbling

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Social Media Tool: How and Why You Should Use URL Shortener Su.pr This weeks tool is the URL Shortener from Stumble Upon,...
2. The #1 Factor For A Successful Blog: Consistent Frequency of Posts There are many factors that will help create a successful...
3. How To Inspire New Blog Post Ideas This week I’ve talked with a few friends who have...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.